About Suzaku

Suzaku (formerly
Astro-E2) is Japan's fifth X-ray Astronomy mission.
It was developed at the Institute of Space and Astronautical
Science of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (ISAS/JAXA), Japan,
in collaboration with U.S. (NASA/GSFC, MIT) and Japanese institutions,
and launched on 2005 July 10. Suzaku is the recovery mission
for ASTRO-E, which
did not achieve
orbit during launch in February 2000.

Suzaku covers the energy range 0.2 - 700 keV with the three
instruments: an X-ray micro-calorimeter (X-ray Spectrometer, or XRS),
four X-ray CCDs (the X-ray Imaging Spectrometers, or XISs), and a hard
X-ray detector, or HXD. However, XRS
prematurely lost all its liquid
helium cryogen and is no longer perative.

Suzaku has four foil X-ray telescopes (XRTs) focusing
X-rays onto each of the four XISs, along with a fifth XRT used with the
XRS. The US has contributed to the XRTs, the XRS, and the XISs.

For further information:

Information sheet about the Suzaku mission - download
the PDF version (3.9 Mbytes).